"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive." — C.S. Lewis

A generation ago pop star Bonnie Tyler famously asked: “Where have all the good men gone?”

Since then, the situation has only gotten worse, Bonnie. As C.S. Lewis noted, men in the English-speaking world have largely been emasculated, and men in the Church are seldom an exception to this decades-long trend.

To stand strong for one’s faith in Jesus Christ and push back against a culture that, in the words of Isaiah 5:20, “call[s] evil good and good evil” is to be “divisive,” “unloving,” “bigoted,” and “intolerant.”

This is because evangelicals have confused Christ’s command to love others with being likable, as if that were an attribute of God. (It isn’t.) As such, they endeavor to be, above all else, inoffensive and polite. This doctrinal malpractice has given us a generation of men who are what Lewis called “men without chests.” …

I urge you instead to be offended by the way our God’s name is blasphemed in our country every day; by the 54 million children murdered in the holocaust of abortion since 1973; by the sordid sexual agenda that is eroding the very fabric of Western civilization; by the fact that Christians are dying for their faith, largely at the hands of Muslims, at a rate of 100,000 per year; and, most of all, by the reality that these things are being ignored, trivialized, or celebrated. These are things that offend me deeply, and I hope they offend you, too. Righteous anger has a place within the Christian life. Tap into it. In the words of Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry and do not sin.” …

Evangelical Christians comprise a hefty 26 percent of the U.S. population. I fully believe that if they were to find their voices, their courage, and were to dispense with candy-assed Christianity, that we would see a Great Awakening in America.

Agreed. Christ himself on several occasions was contemptuous with the authorities of the day, and felt no need to be “nice” to the those who wore the trappings but denied the Truth. The Church should worry less about getting along with the world, and more about challenging that world, whatever the cost. We need Paul’s persistence, not Osteen’s opulence.

Many people, including me, are asking frequently this year how our electoral choices came to be so ridiculously horrid. Where is the honorable candidate? The one who has been consistently honest and not self-serving? Why are there no leaders we can trust?

Let’s face it, at least today of all days: when the Perfect Leader showed up, many centuries ago, this is what we did to Him:

We were offered the Bread of Life, and the crowd called for Barabbas instead. It shouldn’t be a surprise to realize our choices have been ever-more problematic since then. Just remember that Christ still wears the crown He won that day, and no matter who wins the Presidency, they will one day bow the knee to the One who is Faithful and True.

While I haven’t had much time to comment lately, that doesn’t mean I’m not reading constantly. Of all the things that could be said about the latest instance of random, senseless violence, I think THIS needs to be heard most of all:

Dear Sweet Mamas,

I know you are hurting today…

Yesterday a 26-year-old man whose name I won’t give more fame to walked up to your child and said “Are you a Christian?” and your child said “Yes.”

Then he shot them in the head. He walked up to some other moms’ children and asked the same, and if they said “no” he still wounded them, but he let them live.

He killed nine of your children, Mamas. Do you know what that means? That means eight of your brave children saw one of their own take a bullet in the head for claiming Christ and they said yes anyway.

They said yes anyway. They said yes anyway. They said yes anyway.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I want my children here with me, and I know you want yours with you too.

But I will tell you that a YES and a life snuffed out for Christ is better than a NO and 100 years more on this earth without Him.

Thank you for loving your children. Thank you for being Christ to your children. You have made a difference in a way I know you never wanted or hoped or expected to, I know, I know.

But Mama. Your child was able to look into the face of God yesterday and hear “well done.”

I don’t mind admitting the tears that last line brought… tears partially in joy for those who stood firm and were able to hear the Father say “well done.” We live in a world that seems to grow closer to hell every day, in so many ways. I think about my Three Musketeers and what they will likely see in their lifetimes, which are just getting started. I want them to be able to defend themselves, and others, if need be. I want them to understand truth and to have good judgment. But most importantly, I pray that if God allows any of us to have to look evil in the eye and, unarmed except for our faith, answer the most important question anyone can be asked, that our answer, too, will be a resounding “YES.” For we have this hope: the grief in such circumstances is tempered by the knowledge that evil may strike the body on this fallen earth, but never the soul of one who belongs to the Father. And such a soul has a future that far outlasts the pain this world can inflict.

“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.Therefore encourage one another with these words.” — 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

May the “sounds” this Saturday be an encouragement to us all. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!